Overview

Project stage

Prototype

Detailed description

The amount of digital content, such as photos, music, and video has exploded in recent years. However, it has become a super-centralized market with a small number of companies controlling the majority of distribution. This means that creators must sign away rights and control over their content, along with a large percentage of the revenue their content is generating, in order to participate.

Distributed marketplaces allow creators to license their content directly to customers, keeping them in full control of the rights to their content. Wemark is a VC-backed startup based in Israel and San Francisco developing a blockchain-based distribution system for digital content, implementing our concept of the “distributed marketplace”.

The first use-case is Wemark.com - a distributed marketplace for stock photography. Stock photography is a super-centralized $4B industry, with agencies like Shutterstock and Getty Images controlling much of the market. Because customers have a relationship with the agency, and not directly with the photographer, stock photo agencies have developed a critical mass of customers. This leaves photographers with limited alternatives but to give most of the rights, control, and earnings from their photos to these agencies.

The first distributed marketplace (Wemark.com) allows photographers to reach a global audience, while still keeping most of the benefits reserved for distributing their content without a middleman. Customers will be able to license curated, commercial photos directly from leading photographers. Innovative discovery, collaboration, and curation tools also improve the ability for customers to find and manage the content that they need.

Problem

Digital content is one of the most centralized markets that exist. There are hundreds of millions of creators and customers, yet - less than 100 companies control the majority of digital content distribution.

Content marketplaces and agencies are much stronger than individual creators and customers. Creators are usually forced to give up:

A large part of their revenue

Transparency and control

>Most of the rights over their content.

Solution

Starting with photos, Wemark is changing the way content marketplaces are built.

Direct Licensing - Creators license their content directly to customers while keeping all the rights to their content and maintaining control over its price.

Immutable Distribution Terms - Mutually agreed terms are registered on the blockchain and become immutable.

Automatic Payment Distribution - The blockchain becomes the new middleman - automatically managing and distributing payments with full transparency.

Referral Program - Getting others familiarized with Wemark and promoting content on the platform will be automatically rewarded by the protocol.

Features

Photographers keep all the rights to their contentAll licenses are issued directly through the Wemark protocol. Wemark is eligible to distribute the content, but cannot sell or license it without the protocol. The times when creators had to trust marketplace to license their content and report back their earnings are over.

Photographers control the pricing of their photosWemark will introduce different pricing options and tiers. Content cannot be licensed without the photographer’s approval on price and tier.

Photographers keep much more of their revenueNo surprises. Wemark sets a new standard with 85% royalty payment to photographers – 5 times higher than the industry average of 15-20%. If we decide to decrease our royalty-rate in the future, it will never affect existing photographers without their consent – their distribution terms are immutable as part of the Wemark protocol/

Photographers benefit from higher transparencyWemark’s distributed marketplace approach guarantees, by design, full transparency regarding all payments, licenses and revenue distribution. The protocol will ensure the privacy of customers, while providing a way for photographers to identify copyright infringement, license overuse, use of their photos that should be restricted and other license violations.

Photographers will be able to trust the systemThe blockchain-based protocol is immutable and autonomous. No one can manipulate the system – the code that operates it will be public and open-sourced. This creates a new level of trust in digital content distribution - everyone trusts everyone else because the system does not require trust to operate.

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Additional links

Token details

Token symbol
? Token symbol — a shorten token name. It is used during an ICO and after the coin listing at the cryptocurrency exchanges. :WMK

Fundrasing target ? Fundraising target — the maximum amount of funds to be raised during an ICO. When it is reached, the developers stop selling the tokens because they do not need to raise more money for the project development. : 16,750 ETH

Token type ? Token type — a platform for a startup launch that influences the stability of blockchain operation, the speed of transactions and the fees. :Ethereum (ERC20)

Soft cap ? Soft cap — the minimum amount of funds to be raised for the project development. Sometimes when the soft cap has not been reached, the money is returned to the participants. :3,250 ETH

Role of token ? Role of Token — type of token depending on the opportunities it offers to its owner. Utility tokens give their owners a right to use the project services, security tokens are aimed at bringing profit, and currency tokens are a money substitute. :Utility token

Total supply ? Total supply — a total amount of tokens that will be released by the developers. :135,000,000 WMK

Escrow agent ? Escrow agent — a qualified agent who has the right of signature in a multisig wallet. An escrow agent participates in an ICO, monitors the financial operations of the developers and confirms their fairness. :No

Tokens for sale ? Tokens for sale — the number of tokens offered to the participants of an ICO. :46,575,000 WMK

Whitelist ? Whitelist — a list of participants, who get an opportunity to buy tokens. To be whitelisted, you need to register on time because the number of participants and the registration period are usually limited. :Whitelist Open

Additional emission ? Additional emission — an additional release of tokens. It can be done once after the crowd sale or on an ongoing basis. In the projects with a limited emission there is no additional emission. :No

Exchange listing ? Exchange listing — an assumed date when the token will be listed at a cryptocurrency exchange. The developers usually indicate it in a roadmap and a white paper. :NA

Accepting currencies ? Accepting currencies — cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies that can be used for buying the project tokens. :ETH,

Can't participate ? Can't participate — the countries where it is prohibited to buy tokens. These can be countries where ICOs are prohibited altogether, or countries that have the requirements that a particular project does not meet. :China, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, North Korea, Syria, USA,

Know Your Customer (KYC) ? Know Your Customer — a verification procedure for ICO participants, during which the developers can ask for personal data, a photo and a scanned copy of a passport of a potential investor. :Yes

Roadmap

Completing pre-seed fundraising of $1M from leading seed-stage VC's in the US and Israel. The team joins NFX accelerator program - a $150M fund that specializes in marketplaces and network effects.

Sep 2017

Launching The Creator Waiting List

Launching a waiting list for early contributors. More than 1,500 professional photographers signed up in the first few weeks.

Jan 2018

Launching "Wemark For Creators" Alpha Version

Wemark launches its very first product - enabling photographers to create a profile, verify their identity and submit images for review. Thousands of photographers signed up with over 20,000 submitted images.

Feb 2018

Announcing Wemark's Advisory Board

Announcing the first advisors to join the company's advisory board, including Lars Perkins (founder of Picasa - now Google Photos), Keren Sachs (former content director at Shutterstock) and Lee Torrens (marketplace lead at Canva).

Mar 2018

Announcing First Content Partners

Announcing exclusive strategic partnerships with the world's largest content providers in stock photography, including Getty Images top provider - "Caia", with over 20,000 premium images submitted to Wemark.

Apr 2018

Releasing Wemark's Whitepaper

Wemark launches a new TGE website, releases the Whitepaper and announces final details for the TGE.

May-Aug 2018

Token Generation Event (TGE)

The whitelisting for Wemark Tokens sale will start on May 7th at 12pm PDT. The sale will last two weeks, starting from July 24th.

Jul 2018

Launching Wemark.Com Alpha Version

Wemark.com will be launched in alpha as a fully-working marketplace, including transactions, licensing and payment distribution.

Q3 2018

Launching Wemark Pioneers - Wemark's Early Customer Program

Launching an early customers program - "Wemark Pioneers". The program is aimed at designers and journalists from leading advertising/design firms, top brand in-house design studios and renouned publications. Participants will receive special platform perks, fully-guided onboarding process and of course, lots of Wemark swag as gratitude for their support.

Q4 2018

Supporting New Payment Methods

Introducing one or more payment methods for customers other than Wemark Tokens, including credit cards, wire transfer, BTC, ETH and others. All new payment methods will be aimed at assisting customers with purchasing WMK - the only compatible token on the Wemark Protocol.

Q4 2018

Launching Wemark.Com Beta Version

Wemark.com will be launched in beta - improving search and UX and presenting a convincing and wide collection of curated photos, all ready for licensing directly from their creators.

Q1 2019

Supporting New Types Of Content

Supporting new types of digital content such as Illustrations, vectors, video, stock music and 3D models.

Activity

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